It is a cliché, but true: 2 years have flown by so very quickly, and this is now my final issue as Editor-in-Chief of TNOA Journal of Ophthalmic Science in Research. I began formally serving as Editor, Journal of TNOA in April 2016. Now, 2 years later, I publish my last issue. Having this opportunity to contribute to the Journal of TNOA and TNOA Journal of Ophthalmic Science and research has been a wonderful honor.

In penning my final Editorial, it is appropriate to look back at just how far the journal has come since it was approved for publication as TNOA Journal of Ophthalmic Science and Research, from the earlier name of Journal of TNOA. During my time as editor, the journal has come through some significant changes and challenges.

We started from scratch, working with a new team of sub-editors, section editors, and advisory board, learning together, working as a team, reaching out to authors, and growing by word of mouth and by evidencing the high-quality publications. The journal had no article bank and no manuscripts in review, so we had to go after the senior consultants, researchers, and clinicians for original articles and review articles. We made some changes to the structure of the editorial board and the way in which we review papers.

One of my goals in editing the journal was to ensure that the articles we published were good in terms of research design and analysis. To achieve this, we invited senior consultants to be reviewers for the journal. They served as section editors and peer reviewers and consistently provided professional and excellent reviews. We gave a detailed review with technical inputs about changes that would be needed for a publishable paper in response to initial drafts. Some authors appreciated this long and detailed editorial process and wrote letters thanking the editorial board. Others were a bit frustrated with recurrent editing and corrections needed, only to be reassured by us to help us improve the quality of the journal.

Another goal was to internationalize the journal by complying with the regulatory requirements, registering with ISSN for online and print editions, and indexing our journal in over a dozen international databases, such as Baidu Scholar, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, EBSCO Publishing's Electronic Databases, Ex Libris — Primo Central, Google Scholar, Hinari, Infotrieve, Netherlands ISSN center, ProQuest, TdNet, and Wanfang Data. All this was done in a record time of 1 year. We have been bringing out the online ‘ahead- of-print’ issue and also sending E-mails to the TNOA members containing the table of contents and links to the articles. This has encouraged many fresh graduates, early career professionals and clinicians to send in their original articles, case reports and brief communications to be published for the first time.

It is heartening to see the progress TJOSR has made and see our journal articles being accessed, downloaded, and increasingly cited. Statistics of TJOSR 2017 issue reflects the growing popularity of our journal as follows:

2017, Issue 4 (October—December), Accessed — 3094

2017, Issue 3 (July—September), Accessed — 5079

2017, Issue 2 (April—June), Accessed — 5777.

It is indeed a pleasure to see more and more authors submitting their research papers through the TJOSR Manuscript Management system with ease.

This growing success of the journal could not have been achieved without a great deal of help from a significant number of people, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them publicly.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants” -Sir Isaac Newton

I wish to place on record the support and encouragement of all the past and present president, editors, and office bearers of TNOA for all our hard work and initiatives. I also thank Dr. S. Natarajan, Former IJO Editor and President Elect of AIOS, for his advice and help in collaborating with Wolters and Kluwer, our printer. Wish to thank all our state and national advisory board members and members of the managing committee for the support and cooperation for the progress of journal. I am grateful to all of them.

Although the editor-in-chief is designated as the person primarily responsible for the activities of the journal, it is really the core team with managing editors, associate editor, and assistant editors, who make the journal run daily. I was blessed to have an excellent core team, who stood by me during the challenging phase of the journal transition, spending their valuable time and expertise. We are all very fortunate to have been the recipients of their talents and expertise.

I place on record the support and guidance of our Managing Editor, Dr. Murali Ariga, who helped in organizing the first scientific writing workshop and editorial board meet. A special thanks to Dr. Rachula Daniel, Associate Editor, who single-handedly managed the Manuscript Management system with timely editing, proofreading, and coordinating with authors, reviewers, and the assistant editors. During the last 2 years or so, she has spent a lot of time for the cause of TJOSR and we owe a lot to her patience and perseverance.

Wish to thank all the section editors and peer reviewers for sharing their time and expertise and offering constructive feedback and review. The journal, of course, cannot exist without our contributors, and I thank you all for your good work, cooperation, patience with our sometime tardiness, and for your (mostly) amiable exchanges.

It is also important to me to thank both of our publishers, Mr. Elango of Ms. Genix Graphics in 2016—2017 and Wolters Kluwer team lead by Mr. Ramakant Bandbe, from 2017 onward for helping to bring the journal on time and deliver it to all members.

In this issue, we start with a well-written original article “Comparison of Peribulbar Anesthesia with Sub-Tenon's in Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery” by Abhinay Ashok et al., which has highlighted that sub - Tenon's anesthesia is a safe and effective substitute for peribulbar anesthesia in intraocular surgeries.

The original article “Profile of brain tumors having ocular manifestations in a tertiary eye care institute: A retrospective study” by Saurabh Deshmukh et al. has emphasized the fact that all the patients presenting with diminution of vision and with fundus findings must undergo visual field examination along with magnetic resonance imaging early.

“Zepto cataract surgery — the way forward,” by Nishanth Madhivanan et al., is an original article on precision pulse capsulotomy, a valuable tool in a surgeon's armamentarium.

In their original article, “Posterior Staphyloma,” Baskararajan Gopalakrishnan et al. have brought out how PSSO is indicated in progressive myopia in children to arrest its advancement.

In the review article, “Approach to headache in ophthalmic practice,” R. Vasumathi has emphasized how some headaches are symptoms of medical emergencies, placing the ophthalmologist in the frontline of their recognition and management.

There is a case series “Toxic anterior segment syndrome presenting as endotheliitis following uneventful phacoemulsification” by Anusha Koshal Ram et al., and Persistent Fetal Vasculature by Saurabh Deshmukh et al. are interesting and informative.

Harold Ridley's eye-opening discovery is featured in historical/remembering the past. I have brought out the various constructive efforts that were put in the past two plus years of my editorship, for the metamorphosis of the Journal of TNOA to becoming TNOA Journal of Ophthalmic Science and Research in “Journey of the Journal” in Historical/Remembering the past section.

I always hoped to leave TJOSR better and stronger than it was when we took over. I am happy that our editorial board achieved much more than we hoped and worked for. I, now, look forward to see the journal continue under the able editorship of the next editor and team.

Finally, to all TNOA members, a big thank you for all the support and encouragement in the last decade in the service of the association. It has been a distinct privilege and a real pleasure to serve TNOA as editor-in-chief of our flagship journal.